It’s almost a month since the US presidential election in which Democrat Kamala Harris suffered a humiliating loss to Republican Donald Trump, and recriminations have not ceased.
At some point, black men were blamed for the loss “because they are misogynists”, white uneducated men then followed “because they are racist”, before Latinos took the flak “because they are xenophobes” who want the border closed once they have themselves have crossed.
Then legendary ESPN host Stephen A Smith said something different ad lib: the Democrats demonised everybody, calling them deplorables and trash – that the voters thought “let’s all be trash together with him”.
Piers Morgan lashed the media for calling Trump Hitler – “he’s not Hitler, he didn’t kill 12 million Jews”.
And that is the point. When you cry wolf, eventually, people will tune out.
I was not surprised to hear Dali Mpofu and Floyd Shivambu saying Jacob Zuma is “not corrupt”, and that “we were lied to”.
Of course, their reasons might be opportunistic, though it was hilarious to hear a Julius Malema pot call the Zuma kettle black.
The more the media calls every black politician corrupt, they whitewash
the corrupt.
In fact, ANC stalwart Mathews Phosa summed it up best when he said something like because he had been falsely accused of conspiring to overthrow Thabo Mbeki, when Zuma was accused of corruption, he believed the state was being used for a political motive.
If you call everyone a devil, you sanctify the devil.
Former Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Thembi Simelane is now gone, at least away from that crucial portfolio, because of pressure vis a vis the VBS bank looting, even though her loan did not come from VBS.
Again, it is important that South Africans should know that this scrutiny of public office bearers is required. What I am warning against, is corrupting this national imperative for political outcomes.
Put Simelane through the ringer, absolutely. Politicians don’t weep enough in this country, but there are 400 of them in the National Assembly alone. Do you think there is going to be another who will be put through this?
The only ones who will, are those who must be excluded from possibly becoming ANC president or deputy, thus in line to lead the country.
This takes me back to Zuma. We were told he’s corrupt, he spent R240-million on his house, yet nobody has found a justification to demand he return more than R8-million spent on the fire pool. How corrupt is he then really? Just 3% corrupt?
I know corruption shouldn’t have degrees of criminality, but the media ascribes this all the time.
In 2016, Zuma could not have received the endorsement of so many. But after years of being labelled corrupt without evidence, people are changing their minds about him.
Simelane is labelled corrupt but the evidence to support that is absent. There must be a reason for that, and it can’t be good.
Going into her bank account looking for ghosts in the corners seems to be throwing everything at the wall to see if some stick, an admission that the loan accusation alone is weak.
If that is true, upending Simelane’s life is not justified.
There is merit though, in President Cyril Ramaphosa moving her away from the justice department – for appearances. There mustn’t be a suggestion that she hasn’t been charged because the department responsible reports to her.
But Ramaphosa should have called a press briefing to explain this instead of appearing to validate that she is corrupt.
The message the president’s action gives is that those who have an axe to grind with a specific individual need only drive their narrative for three months to get him to deliver their enemy’s head to them.
This is a bad precedent that will lead to an almighty battle all-round for the cushy positions in politics. Invariably, the opposition celebrating this now will start to see the usefulness of using the media in political fights within their ranks too.
Now that there is power to fight for, all parties in the GNU will experience these fights we’ve only seen in the ANC so far.
In the US, the Democrats were scornful of accusations that the justice system in that country had been weaponised.
And this week, as he insulated his son from probity, US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, charged that the justice department has been weaponised.
Weird how these things come full circle in time.
• Mzwandile KaBizokwakhe is a columnist at large with obviously too much time on his hands to think silly things
